A group of residents near the landfill filed suit Tuesday in Hampshire Superior Court in Northampton against officials charging they violated an agreement with the state that restricts the use of the landfill to active or passive recreation.

The town is negotiating a long-term lease with the Boston-based BlueWave Capital Inc. to bring the solar array to that capped landfill, a project that is estimated to save the town about $25 million dollars over time.

Neighbors have been critical of the project claiming that it poses health, esthetic and safety issues. The suit is asking the courts to stop the project.

In an e-mail, Musante wrote that the “I have no specific comments yet on the lawsuit because we have not yet been served. I can say, however, that the Town remains committed to pursuing a solar energy project at the old landfill site that is: safe and in full compliance with all environmental standards and regulations; in full compliance with all state laws, and; has the potential to save Amherst taxpayers millions of dollars in reduced energy costs over the next 20-30 years.”

Town Meeting last month authorized the town to enter a long-term lease with BlueWave despite some neighborhood protests. Following that meeting, Musante said he and other officials would be holding small group meetings with neighbors to ease concerns about the project as it developed. The town has to seek a range of permits at public hearings in which residents can speak.

At a meeting in April some neighbors expressed concerns about the project. They also spoke against the town using arsenic-contaminated soil to grade the closed town landfill even though state officials say its use posed no health risks. The town decided not to use that soil to ease fears. The state had required the town to re-grade the cap before the town sought bids develop solar at the site.

According to the lawsuit, the town was supposed to have filed a deed restriction the with the state within six months of signing the agreement “and prior to submitting a request for final payment” in 1989.

The suit claims that the construction and operation of a solar array is not an active or passive use and the defendants “are attempting to take advantage of their own lack of compliance with the Grant agreement by taking the position that use of the landfill is not restricted” because the deed restriction was not filed.